[Bug 258010] kqueue shortcoming for desktop usage

From: <bugzilla-noreply_at_freebsd.org>
Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2023 07:21:21 UTC
https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=258010

Mark C <fbsd@peralex.com> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
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                 CC|                            |fbsd@peralex.com

--- Comment #4 from Mark C <fbsd@peralex.com> ---
This is an issue that I've been struggling with lately too, also with
syncthing.  The kqueue workaround works for smaller directory trees, but is
unworkable for large collections of files.  The number of file descriptors can
be increased, but with millions of files to watch, the system quickly becomes
unusable.

There was at least one previous attempt to add inotify-type functionality to
FreeBSD in a GSoC project, but I don't know what happened with that:

https://www.freebsd.org/status/report-2010-04-2010-06.html#File-System-Changes-Notification

A long-running discussion on the forums of the differences between inotify
(Linux), fsevents (Mac), and kqueue is here:

https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/inotify-for-freebsd.38162/page-3

I also wonder if something could be implemented based on the existing audit
framework, which seems to allow file alterations to be watched, although it
doesn't have an easy API to use from code.

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